Cock and Anchor
.pdf
COCK AND ANCHOR
ity, an’ Pather has a mighty ignorant manner; but they are placible boys, an’ manes no offence. Who is it you’re lookin’ for, sir?”
“Mr. Gordon Chancey: he lives in one of these houses. Can you direct me to him?”
“No, we can’t,” said the fellow from the fire, in a savage tone. “I tould you before. Won’t you take your answer – won’t you? Slap that doore, Corny, or I’ll get up to him myself.”
“Hould your tongue, you gaol bird, won’t you?” rejoined the female, in accents of shrill displeasure. “Chancey! is not he the counsellor gentleman; he has a yallow face an’ a down look, and never has his hands out of his breeches’ pockets?”
“The very man,” replied Ashwoode.
“Well, sir, he does live in this court: he has the parlour next doore. The street doore stands open – it’s a lodging-house. One doore further on; you can’t miss him.”
“Thank you, thank you,” said Ashwoode. “Good-night.” And as the door was closed upon him, he heard the voices of those within raised in hot debate.
He stumbled and groped his way into the hall of the house which the gracious nymph, to whom he had just bidden farewell, indicated, and knocked stoutly at the parlour-door. It was opened by a sluttish girl, with bare feet, and a black eye, which had reached the green and yellow stage of recovery. She had probably been interrupted in the midst of a spirited altercation with the barrister, for ill humour and excitement were unequivocally glowing in her face.
Ashwoode walked in, and found matters as we shall describe them in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE USURER
AND THE OAKEN BOX
The room which Sir Henry Ashwoode entered was one of squalid disorder. It was a large apartment, originally handsomely wainscoted, but damp and vermin had made woeful havoc in the broad panels, and the ceiling was covered with green and black blotches of mildew. No carpet covered the bare boards, which were strewn with fragments of papers, rags, splinters of an old chest, which had been partially broken up to light the fire, and occasionally a potatoskin, a bone, or an old shoe. The furniture was scant, and no one piece matched the other. Little and bad as it was, its distribution about the room was more comfortless and wretched still. All was dreary disorder, dust, and dirt, and damp, and mildew, and ratholes.
By a large grate, scarcely half filled with a pile of ashes and a few fragments of smouldering turf, sat Gordon Chancey, the master of this notable establishment; his arm rested upon a dirty deal table, and his fingers played listlessly with a dull and battered pewter goblet, which he had just replenished from a two-quart measure of strong beer which stood upon the table, and whose contents had dabbled that piece of furniture with sundry mimic lakes and rivers. Unrestrained by the ungenerous confinement of a fender, the cinders strayed over the cracked hearthstone, and even wandered to
252
COCK AND ANCHOR
the boards beyond it. Mr. Gordon Chancey was himself, too, rather in deshabille. He had thrown off his shoes, and was in his stockings, which were unfortunately rather imperfect at the extremities. His waistcoat was unbuttoned, and his cravat lay upon the table, swimming in a sea of beer. As Ashwoode entered, with ill-suppressed disgust, this loathly den, the object of his visit languidly turned his head and his sleepy eyes over his shoulder, in the direction of the door, and without making the smallest effort to rise, contented himself with extending his hand along the sloppy table, palm upwards, for Ashwoode to shake, at the same time exclaiming, with a drawl of gentle placidity, –
“Oh, dear – oh, dear me! Mr. Ashwoode, I declare to God I am very glad to see you. Won’t you sit down and have some beer? Eliza, bring a cup for my friend, Mr. Ashwoode. Will you take a pipe too? I have some elegant tobacco. Bring my pipe to Mr. Ashwoode, and the little canister that M’Quirk left here last night.”
“I am much obliged to you,” said Ashwoode, with difficulty swallowing his anger, and speaking with marked hauteur, “my visit, though an unseasonable one, is entirely one of business. I shall not give you the trouble of providing any refreshment for me; in a word, I have neither time nor appetite for it. I want to learn exactly how you and I stand: five minutes will show me the state of the account.”
“Oh, dear – oh, dear! and won’t you take any beer, then? it’s elegant beer, from Mr. M’Gin’s there, round the corner.”
Ashwoode bit his lips, and remained silent.
“Eliza, bring a chair for my friend, Sir Henry Ashwoode,” continued Chancey; “he must be very tired – indeed he must, after his long walk; and here, Eliza, take the key and open the press, and do you see, bring me the little oak box on the second shelf. She’s a very good little girl, Mr. Ashwoode, I assure you. Eliza is a very sensible,
253
JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU
good little girl. Oh, dear! – oh, dear! but your father’s death was very sudden; but old chaps always goes off that way, on short notice. Oh, dear me! – I declare to – , only I had a pain in my – (here he mentioned his lower stomach somewhat abruptly) – I’d have gone to the funeral this morning. There was a great lot of coaches, wasn’t there?”
“Pray, Mr. Chancey,” said Ashwoode, preserving his temper with an effort, “let us proceed at once to business. I am pressed for time, and I shall be glad, with as little delay as possible, to ascertain – what I suppose there can be no difficulty in learning – the exact state of our account.”
“Well, I’m very sorry, so I am, Mr. Ashwoode, that you are in such a hurry – I declare to – I am,” observed Chancey, supplying big goblet afresh from the larger measure. “Eliza, have you the box? Well, bring it here, and put it down on the table, like an elegant little girl.”
The girl shoved a small oaken chest over to Chancey’s elbow; and he forthwith proceeded to unlock it, and to draw forth the identical red leather pocket-book which had received in its pages the records of Ashwoode’s disasters upon the evening of their last meeting.
“Here I have them. Captain Markham – no, that is not it,” said Chancey, sleepily turning over the leaves; “but this is it, Mr. Ashwoode – ay, here; first, two hundred pounds, promissory note – payable one week after date. Mr. Ashwoode, again, one hundred and fifty – promissory note – one week. Lord Kilblatters – no – ay, here again – Mr. Ashwoode, two hundred – promissory note – one week. Mr. Ashwoode, two hundred and fifty – promissory note – one week. Mr. Ashwoode, one hundred; Mr. Ashwoode, fifty. Oh, dear me! dear me! Mr. Ashwoode, three hundred.” And so on, till it appeared that Sir Henry Ashwoode stood indebted to Gordon Chancey, Esq.,
254
COCK AND ANCHOR
in the sum of six thousand four hundred and fifty pounds, for which he had passed promissory notes which would all become due in two days’ time.
“I suppose,” said Ashwoode, “these notes have hardly been negotiated. Eh?”
“Oh, dear me! No – oh, no, Mr. Ashwoode,” replied Chancey. “They have not gone out of my desk. I would not put them into the hands of a stranger for any trifling advantage to myself. Oh, dear me! not at all.”
“Well, then, I suppose you can renew them for a fortnight or so, or hold them over – eh?” asked Ashwoode.
“I’m sure I can,” rejoined Chancey. “The bills belong to the old cripple that lent the money; and he does whatever I bid him. He trusts it all to me. He gives me the trouble, and takes the profit himself. Oh! he does confide in me. I have only to say the word, and it’s done. They shall be renewed or held over as often as you wish. Indeed, I can answer for it. Dear me, it would be very hard if I could not.”
“Well, then, Mr. Chancey,” replied Ashwoode, “I may require it, or I may not. Craven has the promise of a large sum of money, within two or three days – part of the loan he has already gotten. Will you favour me with a call on to-morrow afternoon at Morley Court. I will then have heard definitely from Craven, and can tell you whether I require time or not.”
“Very good, sir – very fair, indeed, Mr. Ashwoode. Nothing fairer,” rejoined the lawyer. “But don’t give yourself any uneasiness. Oh, dear, on no account; for I declare to – I would hold them over as long as you like. Oh, dear me – indeed but I would. Well, then, I’ll call out at about four o’clock.”
“Very good, Mr. Chancey,” replied Ashwoode. “I shall expect you. Meanwhile, good-night.” So they separated.
255
JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU
The young baronet reached his ancestral dwelling without adventure of any kind, and Mr. Gordon Chancey poured out the last drops of beer from the inverted can into his pewter cup, and draining it calmly, anon buttoned his waistcoat, shook the wet from his cravat, and tied it on, thrust his feet into his shoes, and flinging his cocked hat carelessly upon his head, walked forth in deep thought into the street, whistling a concerto of his own invention.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE DIABOLIC WHISPER
Gordon Chancey sauntered in his usual lazy, lounging way, with his hands in his pockets, down the street. After a listless walk of half-an-hour he found himself at the door of a handsome house, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Castle. He knocked, and was admitted by a servant in full livery.
“Is he in the same room?” inquired Chancey.
“Yes, sir,” replied the man; and without further parley, the learned counsel proceeded upstairs, and knocked at the drawingroom door, which, without waiting for any answer, he forthwith opened.
Nicholas Blarden – with two ugly black plaisters across his face, his arm in a sling, and his countenance bearing in abundance the livid marks of his late rencounter – stood with his back to the fireplace; a table, blazing with wax-lights, and stored with glittering wine-flasks and other matters, was placed at a little distance before him. As the man of law entered the room, the countenance of the invalid relaxed into an ugly grin of welcome.
“Well, Gordy, boy, how goes the game? Out with your news, old rat-catcher,” said Blarden, in high good humour.
“Dear me, dear me! but the night is mighty chill, Mr. Blarden,” observed Chancey, filling a glass of wine to the brim, and sipping it uninvited. “News,” he continued, letting himself drop into a chair – “news; well, there’s not much stirring worth telling you.”
257
JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU
“Come, what is it? You’re not come here for nothing, old fox,” rejoined Blarden, “I know by the – twinkle in the corner of your eye.”
“Well, he has been with me, just now,” drawled Chancey. “Ashwoode?”
“Yes.”
“Well! what does he want – what does he want, eh?” asked Blarden, with intense excitement.
“He says he’ll want time for the notes,” replied Chancey.
“God be thanked!” ejaculated Blarden, and followed this ejaculation with a ferocious burst of laughter. “We’ll have him, Chancey, boy, if only we know how to play him – by – , we’ll have him, as sure as there’s heat in hell.”
“Well, maybe we will,” rejoined Chancey.
“Does he say he can’t pay them on the day?” asked Blarden, exultingly.
“No; he says maybe he can’t,” replied the jackal.
“That’s all one,” cried Blarden. “What do you think? Do you think he can?”
“I think maybe he can, if we squeeze him,” replied Chancey. “Then don’t squeeze him – he must not get out of our books on
any terms – we’ll lose him if he does,” said Nicholas.
“We’ll not renew the notes, but hold them over,” said Chancey. “He must not feel them till he can’t pay them. We’ll make them sit light on him till then – give him plenty of line for a while – rope enough and a little patience – and the devil himself can’t keep him out of the noose.”
“You’re right – you are, Gordy, boy,” rejoined Blarden. “Let him get through the ready money first – eh? – and then into the stone jug with him – we’ll just choose our own time for striking.”
258
COCK AND ANCHOR
“I tell you what it is, if you are just said and led by me, you’ll have a quare hold on him before three months are past and gone,” said Chancey, lazily – “mind I tell you, you will.”
“Well, Gordy, boy, fill again – fill again – here’s success to you.” Chancey filled, and quaffed his bumper, with, a matter-of-fact,
business-like air.
“And do you mind me, boy,” continued Blarden, “spare nothing in this business – bring Ashwoode entirely under my knuckle – and, by – , I’ll make it a great job for you.”
“Indeed – indeed but I will, Mr. Blarden, if I can,” rejoined Chancey; “and I think I can – I think I know a way, so I do, to get a halter round his neck – do you mind? – and leave the rope’s end in your hand, to hang him or not, as you like.”
“To hang him!” echoed Blarden, like one who hears something too good to be true.
“Yes, to hang him by the neck till he’s dead – dead – dead,” repeated Chancey, imperturbably.
“How the blazes will you do it?” demanded the wretch, anxiously. “Pish, it’s all prate and vapour.”
Gordon Chancey stole a suspicious glance round the room from the corner of his eye, and then suffering his gaze to rest sleepily upon the fire once more, he stretched out one of his lank arms, and after a little uncertain groping, succeeding in grasping the collar of his companion’s coat, and drawing his head down toward him. Blarden knew Mr. Chancey’s way, and without a word, lowered his ear to that gentleman’s mouth, who forthwith whispered something into it which produced a marked effect upon Mr. Blarden.
“If you do that,” replied he with ferocious exultation, “by – , I’ll make your fortune for you at a slap.”
And so saving, he struck his hand with heavy emphasis upon the barrister’s shoulder, like a man who clenches a bargain.
259
JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU
“Well, Mr. Blarden,” replied Chancey, in the same drowsy tone, “as I said before, I declare it’s my opinion I can, so it is – I think I can.”
“And so do I think you can – by – , I’m sure of it,” exclaimed Blarden triumphantly; “but take some more – more wine, won’t you? take some more, and stay a bit, can’t you?”
Chancey had made his way to the door with his usual drowsy gait; and, passing out without deigning any answer or word of farewell, stumbled lazily downstairs. There was nothing odd, however, in this leave-taking; it was Chancey’s way.
“We’ll do it, and easily too,” muttered Blarden with a grin of exultation. “I never knew him fail – that fellow is worth a mine. Ho! ho! Sir Henry, beware – beware. Egad, you had better keep a bright look-out. It’s rather late for green goslings to look to their necks, when the fox claps his nose in the poultry-yard.”